For growth I invest in 5 asset classes
domestic large cap
domestic mid cap
domestic small cap
foreign large cap
foreign small cap
The one bond fund I use is a mix of Real Estate bonds, government bonds, corporate bonds, high yield, foreign bonds and emerging market bonds, and also dividend paying stocks (it is a fund of funds).
Those 6 funds and asset classes make up my asset allocation. The mid cap and small cap funds tend to overlap asset classes (for example a small cap fund might have 40% mid cap or mid cap fund might have 20% small cap). All 6 of these funds are in tax advantaged accounts.
I also have a mortgage paydown account which is taxable. For that I use a moderate fund which is a mix of gold bullion, silver bullion, bonds, energy stocks, growth stocks and swiss francs. I use this fund for 3 reasons:
1) Any money which would be used to pay down mortgage gets invested into this fund
2) I have 3 months expenses in cash for emergencies, this fund represents months 4-6 expenses as well (if an emergency hit).
3) This fund will include some contributions for kids education when I start contributing to it. In general this fund is for intermediate term expenses with a time horizon of less than 10 years. New roof. New HVAC. New Hot water heater...
